May 8, 2008 2:01 PM
The Bible is a rich source for learning about the right relation of a society towards its immigrant population.
In Genesis 12:1 we learn that our father Abraham was told by God "Go from your country and your kindred and the house of your father to the land that I will show you", becoming one of history's first recorded immigrants. Abraham lived in Egypt as an alien, a straner in the land. [Gen. 12:10]
In the Bible we are given a mandate to care for the stranger, as one never knows when the stranger might be God. In Genesis 18:1-8, God appears to Abraham in the guise of three strangers near the oaks at Mamre. He offers the strangers hospitality. He gives them the best of what he has. God enjoins us to welcome the stranger, not build walls of hatred or fences of steel to keep him out.
The fundamental stories of Christianity abound with instructions to shelter the alien, and punishment for those, like the people of Sodom, who abuse the stranger.
In Suffolk County there is a massive and instutional effort to mistreat the stranger. IR-1105 is the most anti-immigrant bill to be proposed in the county's history. Many sectors of the religious community have recognized this and have turned out at legislative hearings against it. Catholics, Jews, Methodists, Lutherans, Unitarians and leaders from other religions as well have spoken prophetically against this sinful law.
Notably missing have been Latino evangelical pastors.
Evengelicals are among the strongest voices within the Latino religious community. Tens of thousands of evangelicals attend religious services in Spanish each week. And yet, one must ask after each legislative hearing on IR-1105: "Where are the pastors? Why aren't they here to speak for the members of their congregations?"
When IR-1105 is passed and their congregations begin to dissolve as members lose their jobs and begin to scatter, it will be too late for these shepherds to defend their flocks. The time to assume the Biblical role of defender of the people of God is today.